Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said today that the commission shall exercise discretion regarding the scope and intensity of the investigations it considers necessary and appropriate. He also said that the commission shall have the discretion to decide to limit its investigation. Does he actually want the truth or the minimum? Mr. Justice Fennelly has not been asked outright to examine the issue of the recordings that took place in prisons. Perhaps the Taoiseach should ask Brian Purcell if he knows a bit about it. There is no point in saying that the Minister will make a decision on it after the Inspector of Prisons looks at it and there is another internal review first. The Taoiseach should direct that it goes ahead now.

When we raised the issue of racial profiling by the Garda the Minister completely denied in this House for months that it was prevalent in the Garda Síochána. However, now that the report of the Ombudsman for Children is coming out, he changed his tune a little in Naas last week. However, there is still no investigation into the allegations that 40 Traveller children were put on the PULSE system. Why is this not being included in the commission of investigation? We were told last October, when we again raised the issue of racial profiling, that we were a disgrace by the Minister for Justice and Equality. The Sean Guerin investigation is yet another paper review. It means nothing. It should also be included in the commission of investigation. Let us find out what is in the dossier that Maurice McCabe put forward. Let us see what is really in it and investigate anything that needs to be investigated. Maybe some of it does not need to be investigated but I suspect some of it does. We are not going to know the truth until we have an independent public inquiry into it.

We will get nothing from the investigation by Mr. Justice Cooke either. We need a proper, public and independent inquiry into the GSOC bugging allegations. The GSOC bugging issue is, for me, the biggest scandal of them all. The truth has not been told. What GSOC found out last summer was enough for the Garda Síochána to decide to bug it. The dogs in the street believe that GSOC was bugged by An Garda Síochána and we are not going to know the truth until we have an independent public inquiry. The Government is not going to regain the trust and confidence of the people until we have such an inquiry into this issue. There is more than the Garda bugging GSOC. Gardaí have come to us and made serious allegations about drugs and senior gardaí and about gardaí involved in drugs. It is all part of a terrible mess.

Too many lies have been told. I do not know for how much longer the Taoiseach is going to back the Minister for Justice and Equality but he cannot back him forever. The truth is going to catch up with him. His credibility is gone and the longer the Taoiseach backs the Minister, the more the credibility of his Government will diminish. The Taoiseach will lose the support of his own people if he does not start calling a spade a spade. Let us get to the truth.

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